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Message from Yarmouth

Last week, three girls in Cohasset, Mass., found this message inside a bottle apparently sent from Yarmouth, Maine. The message was written on a piece of cardboard.

Three girls — 8-year-old twins Annabelle and Kyra DeGroat and their 4-year-old sister Bridgit — found the bottle March 10 while walking along Cohasset Harbor. The town has about 7,000 residents and is about 35 miles south of Boston.

The message they found inside intrigued them, according to their day-care provider, Linda Bolster. It was written on a piece of cardboard and said:

"Dear Somebody, We live in Maine. We want to know if you want to be are pen pal. Are addriss is 7 Royall Pt. Road, Yarmoth, Maine."

Bolster said the girls were excited to read the message. The handwriting and misspellings suggested it was written by a young child, she said.

Bolster said the message was signed "Laura, Pearce, Sara" and what Bolster believes is "Pam." On the back of the message she said she found two more names: "Thompson" and one that is impossible to decipher.

"We would love to know who sent the message and how long ago it was sent," Bolster said. "We sent a letter back to them, but no one has been in touch yet."

On Tuesday, March 23, some potential clues were uncovered.

According to Yarmouth Town Assessor Bill Healey, addresses along Royall Point Road were changed in the late 1990s. What is now 77 Royall Point Road used to be 7 Royall Point Road. Thor and Susan Kayeum built the home around 1989 and sold it in 1997, Healey said, and after they moved out the address became No. 77.

Lisa Bianchini, secretary at Yarmouth Elementary School, said she remembered a girl named Pearce Thompson who attended the school around 1997. Thompson went to school with Bianchini's daughter Gina, and both girls graduated from Yarmouth High School in 2006.

"(Pearce) must be about 22 by now," Bianchini said. "She was in fourth grade when I started working here about 13 years ago."

Sending a message in a bottle was something Pearce would have done, Bianchini said, because she had a very original style.

Bianchini said Thompson now lives in New York and is a senior at Parsons The New School for Design, where she is earning a degree in design and management and is a fashion intern at StyleCaster.com.

Attempts to reach Thompson on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Bolster said everywhere she goes in Cohasset people want to know about the people who sent the message in the bottle.

"This is such an old-time story," she said. "It's not just us, the whole town is curious now."

"Twelve years in the ocean without damage is a long time," Bolster added. "This is so exciting."